We won, Nation. We won. 5-1 against the Sharks. Stortini AND Comrie got into fights. I was there. There was shouting and the consumption of beverages. And it was free, thanks to stalwart OilersNation commenter rubbertrout.

The story began about a month ago when rubbertrout posted a message on the site to me and Wanye: "Check your email." Now, I'm not about to let some dude named "rubbertrout" tell me what to do. So I sat there, breathing through my mouth, pretending not to care about what my email might contain, even though it was tearing me up.

I eventually caved and read the following:

Dearest bingofuel,

I write to seek your cooperation as my foreign partner and your assistance to enable us to own properties and invest in the stable economy of your country. I apologize if this mail does not suit your personal or business ethics.

My names are Mr. Rubbertrout. We are making this venture proposal to you in strict confidence. As senior civil servants in the South Africa Government, the South African civil service laws (Code of Conduct bureau) forbid us to own a foreign account. The Oilers tickets we have in our possession is an overdue win waiting to happen which we want to transfer abroad with the assistance and co-operation of a company/or an individual to receive the said funds, via a reliable Oilers fan website.

Well, rubbertrout, you had me at "hello."

Waiting with Wanye

Rubbertrout's a hot-shot from Calgary who loves the Oil. So he scored some tickets to ye olde corporate box, and yesterday set sail on the QEII for colder climes.

He got as far as Ponoka when his wife called him to tell him he'd left his bag — which contained the tickets — at home. I imagine rubbertrout let fly with a a huge "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFfffffffff—", turned his rig around and headed back south. He met his wonderful, thoughtful and loving wife in Didsbury where he grabbed his gear, turned around and headed back up to Edmonton.

Needless to say, we bugged the shit out of him when he showed up at the Pint with his buddy Mo.

Wanye and I were already several drinks into the night, so Mo and Rubs had to play catch-up. We downed a few more pints and jumped on the train.

Wanye has entered the building

When we arrived in our Executive Box the brews just kept flowing... and so did the food:

The conversation also flowed. Mo claimed to be some kind of doctor — and he kept insisting that he could get me super cheap cosmetic surgeries if I "don't ask too many questions". His doctoring is in the field of breathing, and he spent a great deal of the evening constantly checking our airways. He also pointed out that OilersNation.com is blocked at the University Hospital. This made Wanye very excited.

"We are such a huge deal, man, don't you get it? We could have single-handedly diminished heathcare in this province, so the health authority put up the walls. This is how god must feel when his websites get blocked."

He then started sobbing and spent most of the rest of the evening in the bathroom until rubbertrout talked him back out.

We spent the evening getting just greased and pretending not to notice that Paul Comrie, Mike's brother, was chillin' in our box as well. We also pretended not to notice that at least one dude really liked yelling "shoot." And when one of the box residents was stopped by the cops on the concourse for underaged drinking, and allowed back into the box... well, we pretended not to notice a lot of things last night.

What we DIDN'T pretend not to notice was an Oilers' victory. And what we really, really noticed was Stortini winning a fight — bless his angry caveman-like heart — and even Comrie getting into a thoroughly polite dust-up. Outstanding work from the home team.

I'm not going to go all Willis on you and tell you that even though they won, the Oilers sucked. Because last night, when Rexall staff finally demanded that we leave and we loaded up our pants and jackets with contraband booze and headed back downtown, all that mattered was that sweet taste of victory. And booze.

Wanye managed to find some serviceable trash to bring home with him too:

Wanye has left the building

On our way out back into the LRT station, we were treated to a closer look of the ill-advised TEAM 1260 ads... And I say ill-advised because these are some giant effin' images of Gregor, Meg, Bob Stauffer... and no one should be treated to an image this large of anyone:

I mean, not only is Gregor's head as large as I am tall, but he's got some questionable dental work going on there. Fortunately, we brushed past these marketing monstrosities and made for the train, beers in pants. When we boarded the LRT, we made friends with a guy named Craig who wanted to know the score of the game.

I just handed him a beer and told him we won. He couldn't believe me. He cracked open his drink and we toasted.

Then, at Churchill Station, the transit cops board the train. So we disembarked, leaving the enforcement of laws to the professionals, and opting not to get stopped for our own miscreancy. I just made up that word.

We stopped a full eight blocks from the Pint, our HQ for the night, but we made it back through the coldest rain we'd experienced to discuss hockey, business, and the business of hockey well into the night.

Did I mention, we won?

Bingofuel is the handsome cyborg who pulls all the levers behind the curtains of the OilersNation. When he isn't running the site, he's plugged into a wall socket, recharging. Or Brownlee and Wanye are playing "keep away" with him. He gets little to no respect.

Well it seems to me that Bingofuel and Wanye have just discovered a way to have themselves free tickets to every game.

"Uh... Hi Nation, if you take us to the game, we will immortalize you on our super kick-ass website"

Now that is a sound business plan.

@The Towel Boy

I have actually partied with Bingofuel and Wanye so I can guarantee you that it was a glorious time they had. You should try partying with them too some time. I hear they do some sort of "Nation Party" thing once in a while. just sayin'

Well it seems to me that Bingofuel and Wanye have just discovered a way to have themselves free tickets to every game.

"Uh... Hi Nation, if you take us to the game, we will immortalize you on our super kick-ass website"

Now that is a sound business plan.

@The Towel Boy

I have actually partied with Bingofuel and Wanye so I can guarantee you that it was a glorious time they had. You should try partying with them too some time. I hear they do some sort of "Nation Party" thing once in a while. just sayin'

So I recently rolled into Vegas pretending I owned the place and decided to bet my entire 25 years of life savings ($20 I found under my seat on the plane) on the Wings to demolish the only men I've ever loved. As I walked up to the Sports Book and the lady asked what she could do for me something came out not even I expected "$20 Oilers, money line". "Who are the Oilers?". I screamed and spewed fire and drunken blasphemy at her until she looked up the game number. My new hero DD stands on his head and triples my money. Naturally I threw those winnings on the game last night and tripled again. Showing up at work this morning was a poor choice. I'm pretty pumped about the lunchtime donair. Jumbo with cheese.

It was a great weekend. but not entirely as I would have predicted. For my betting money I would have called Oilers to lose both and the Rush to kick some a**.
However.

The Oilers were nice enough to buy me breakfast on Saturday morning and the Eberle question was posed. Tambos answer... we need to create a competitive environment in all levels of this organization (insert the Oklahoma city blurb), one of the failings in the last few years has been our reliance on players that arent NHL ready or premature promotion due to immediate needs (or some sort of logic).
He fully grants that the mighty Quinn and the fans would like to see Eberle up here: and it may happen: but in Tambos mind, its not the way the plan is designed. He is totally fine with Eberle ripping it up in the AHL and feels that is the absolute best place for his development. (props to Daum) His physical attributes are redundant in this current Oilers lineup and the Oiler brass have decisions to make on the guys that are here playing an Eberle similar role. He did take a shot at the current roster as follows, Jordan Eberle was the highest ranking Oiler in preseason fitness training (***), he was great with that (naturally) but kinda pissed that the "seasoned vets/guys playing for jobs etc." got handed their lunch by a not fully developed kid.
I did offer for general amusement and lightheartedness, the kids 19 and living in Regina, he had time and little else to occupy his summer.

Many questions were asked the ones I found interesting were Eberle, a discussion on mentorship for the teams offensively gifted that was tied to a Jagr question, (personally I dont think OV8 hit Jagr hard enough and I shared that). The grit and hard team to play against thing which included a bow to the Doug Weight led teams of the 90s, tambo agreed, gave props to Jacques and Stone and the Jones kid that got hurt in game one. Major love for Dubnyk and the feel good story of the morning.

I didnt read a lot into it. It never struck me as a team decision that would rival those we viewed when deciding on the team canada roster. Lots of people are passionate that the kid should be up here, hes not and those are the reasons offered. I dont think Quinn and the rest of the coaches are jumping up and down insisting he be here, Tambo was referencing that their is a strong undertow of support for the kid and he mentioned that Quinn and the coaches would be amongst that list.

Stauffer presents the pro Eberle case very well and makes it well known in the presence of the Oiler brass, just like he did Saturday morning. Bob did a great job hosting the event with the seat holders interests at heart, not as a payed shill for the organization like he is for ched.

Is it just me or does Gregor resemble a caucassion Kim Jong Il. Not that he is a crazed asian dictator, but, if he was, that would be a perfect party picture. Imagine that picture hanging off the wall of every building on every street, heil Gregor!!!

Fantastic story. I couldn't imagine the feeling of forgetting the tix in YYC. Only because I have done the same thing, but I am not 2.5 hours away. Thank goodness you had a Doctor in the car to resuscitate you.

Fantastic story. I couldn't imagine the feeling of forgetting the tix in YYC. Only because I have done the same thing, but I am not 2.5 hours away. Thank goodness you had a Doctor in the car to resuscitate you.